Among the many technological questions in the space race was this: How, exactly, to put a man on the moon? From the book "Chariots For Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft" (NASA, 1979):
Another approach was the proposal to send a spacecraft on a one-way trip to the moon. In this concept, the astronaut would be deliberately stranded on the lunar surface and resupplied by rockets shot at him for, conceivably, several years until the space agency developed the capability to bring him back! ... In June 1962, John M. Cord and Leonard M. Seale, two engineers from Bell Aerosystems, urged in a paper presented an Institute of Aerospace Sciences meeting in Los Angeles that the United States adopt this technique for getting a man on the moon in a hurry. While he waited for NASA to find a way to bring him back, they said, the astronaut could perform valuable scientific work. Cord and Seale, in a classic understatement, acknowledged that the would be a very hazardous mission, but they argued that "it would be cheaper, faster and perhaps the only way to beat Russia." There is no evidence that Apollo planners ever took this idea seriously.
* "One-Way Space Man" (by David S.F. Portree, www.wired.com, April 2012): @
* "Summary of proposal" (discussion board, www.alternatehistory.com): @
* Excerpt from "This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age" (William E. Burrows, 1999): @
* Excerpt from "Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void" (Mary Roach, 2011): @
* "Chariots for Apollo": @
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